Yesterday I helped John load and unload two trailer’s full of wood for our woodstove which we burn during the winter months. We have a furnace, but enjoy trying to be more self-sufficient when we can. Besides the ambiance of a woodburning stove is so soothing to one’s soul.
But as we loaded and unloaded the wood I was fascinated by some of the shapes of the pieces, such as this one above. It’s an an art statement just as it is.
It had me wondering what it is that makes a creative life. I always used to closely associate it with what medium we may work with or try out such as writing, painting, drawing, or sculpting to name just a few.
When I think about my life, so much of it is creative in the way that we make choices for what works for John and I. Neither of us work in the corporate world having left there over 20-years ago. John with his own construction business which lends itself often to his own sense of creativity, and me with my writing, animal advocacy, and SoulCollage® workshops I teach.
But it’s more than that really. To see life as one big creative playground no matter what you are doing.
Like yesterday setting out with John to travel about 20 minutes on a sunny Sunday morning to get the wood. Feeling blessed to have the life I do with John who is so good to me and makes me happy.
Working with our hands, throwing the pieces into the trailer, being out in nature listening to the birds, feeling the wind in our faces and the sun on our backs.
Seeing the beauty in each piece of wood, imagining how it started out as a seedling and grew into a magnificent tree, then chopped down for many different purposes.
Creativity is all around me at all times. It’s in the way I plan our meals, decorate our house, hang out with my dogs, talk with John, go for walks, practice yoga, and meditate. This is, in part, what makes my life feel so creative.
It’s about being open to how we see the world through our own eyes and feel into it into the depth of our hearts. It’s about making the conscious choice of staying in awareness of this thing called life and accepting all that we can see, but also the mystery of it, too.
It’s about following your hearts calling even when times feel tough. It’s making it work despite the odds stacked against you at times. It’s really, to me, about listening to the inner truth that is there if you wish to hear it.
And I think it really is about pausing often, listening to that inner realm, and capturing what it is that matters most to you… and then living from that place within that makes your heart sing.
One of the things I love most about my husband, John, is that it seems no matter what we do together, we have fun.
For the past three years we’ve had a wood burning stove and burn wood in it every winter season. We love the coziness and wonderful smell of it.
You know the saying, what a difference a year makes?
Today is one year since my mom’s husband passed away and I’ve thought of him often today. As part owner of a lumber company, he’d smile knowing we are using what Mother Nature provides us as we stack the last trailer full of wood today in our garage.
The hauling and stacking of the wood for the past two years was something John did with a friend of ours that had become very dear in our life. But that all changed too when we went our separate ways which is approaching the one year anniversary of that friendship that fell to the wayside. It was a very tough time for us, because it broke our hearts at the time.
But today, as John and I made the two trips to haul the wood, and the radio playing music from the 70’s and 80’s we started a new tradition – just him and me.
And it was beautiful. And I gave thanks in my heart for the life I have with him. Working hard, side-by-side and sharing a few laughs. No doubt each of us also giving thought to what had been and though that still tugs at our heart strings a bit yet, we have moved on, stronger for what we learned.
And truly grateful for the bond we have. God sure knew what he was doing when he put us together as husband and wife… and I’m so very lucky. So lucky.
Tipi photo courtesy of meaningfullifecounseling.com
The stars were so bright in the sky last night. Something I don’t often take the time to see once tucked in my home at the end of the day during the colder months, my nose usually in a book, and a wiener dog snuggling at my side.
But last night, as I stepped out of my comfort zone and into the magnificent gift of feeling a part of the universe—the stars connecting me to a place within myself I don’t visit often enough.
I’d heard often about these Tipi (or Teepee) gatherings. It is not far from my home—only about ten minutes. A place I’d been last October when I sought some coaching/counseling around a painful experience I was working through under the guidance of Pam Kachelmeier, a coach and counselor out of her home and her business Meaningful Life Counseling.
Pam is also a big animal lover, especially horses, having many of her own. She teaches others what the spirit of horse can do for helping us heal.
We gathered in the barn first as Pam explained how the night would unfold while the horses crunched on hay behind her. That in itself I could have listened to all night long. It was very soothing to me.
With flashlights in some of the participants hands, we then walked a path which was partially lit by rope lighting to the back part of Pam’s property, up a set of stairs, and into a Tipi with the images of horses on the outside.
Chairs circled around the inside of the Tipi, with a covered fire pit where Pam lit the logs to provide warmth. But also a focal point in which to gaze and find inner peace.
Dan, a shaman also then joined us. Dan and Pam guided us to give voice to something we each wished to have healed, so that we could then open ourselves to receive what is next for our life’s path.
It’s rather hard to explain in words being in this community of 14 of us, all of whom I’d never met before, except for Pam. But I felt safe. In part, I believe because being in that space not only was I connecting with each of them, but also with the land, the stars, nature, and the medicine of animals.
There are no words when you put yourself in an experience like this because it is the feelings that arise that are hard to describe. Feelings that so many of us don’t take the time to feel because we are caught up in our way too busy lives.
Each person spoke about what it was they wished to let go of. Many wanted to let go of their own negative thought patterns, or to release the negativity that they carry around that they’ve allowed other to have imposed upon them. Some had recent loss in their life they were grappling with, while some had past wounds they wanted to let go of.
We each had a chance to also speak of what intention we wanted as we moved through the evening that we would carry with us once the night was over.
It was time to then head back to the barn and be with the horses as Pam took us on a guided visual meditation. Before she did that, she passed around a basket with feathers and we were to each choose one. I chose a white feather and held it in my hands as she began the meditation.
I smiled inwardly, when in the meadow she guided us to, sitting by a river, and prompted to look for a horse approaching, that my horse was all white. I was also dressed in a flowing white dress with brown cowboy boots.
I found it fascinating that there seemed to be a connection between the white feather, horse and my dress I saw in the meditation. As she brought us back out of the guided meditation I really didn’t want to leave this place that was complete peace and stunning beauty. But I know that anytime I want now, I can return to it.
What happened next was my favorite part. I felt myself getting very emotional as I could hear Pam guiding a horse out of the stall as we were coming out of the meditation, but our eyes still closed.
As we slowly opened our eyes, there he was standing in all his magnificent glory before us. He was cocoa brown with marked paintings on his front limbs, his face, a red circle around his left eye, and a painted pink hand on his left side.
I thought my heart would burst right out of my chest for the spirit of him that again, I can’t find words for to describe adequately.
Pam explained to us that humans have been around for 1 million years (I think she said million- perhaps it was billion?), but that horses have been around for 50 times longer than that. The point is that they have been roaming this earth way longer than we have.
She explained how they live in the 13th dimension. Whoa. I couldn’t wrap my head around that. But it explained for me the palpable feeling of being in that sacred space with them last evening.
Words truly seemed pointless as it is the spirit of Horse which helps us to understand that living from our feelings is the only way in which to understand ourselves and the world around us.
With candles lit all around the barn, Pam and Horse encircled us in a ceremony of each of us taking a turn to place our feather in the horse’s mane.
As we each took our turn walking up to the horse, Pam wound a small rubber band around a piece of his mane. We then placed our feather in it, and silently asked a question of Horse spirit that we want help with.
My emotions were tingling at a high vibration on the surface of my skin during the ceremony—it was so healing being within that circle.
Once all the feathers were tied within the mane of the horse, Pam explained to us they would remain there as the horse goes out into the pasture the next couple of days where they will eventually fall out on their own within 1-3 days.
And from my understanding, this is when we may receive the answer to the question we asked, though it could be sooner or later, too—but to be open and listen.
We then all walked again back to the Tipi for the closing of the evening. One of my concerns, which I didn’t voice out loud, was that I was worried the horse would carry all our negative energy we just spent time letting go of.
But my concern was calmed as we gathered back inside the Tipi, around the burning fire, and Pam explained that horses don’t carry any negative energy with them. It’s not in their nature.
And then a deeper realization hit for me that yes, something I’ve always understood and known, but lovingly pierced into the core of my heart again, that this is the teaching of animals.
They are calling out to us to follow their lead. To let go of negativity, our past, and any pain we carry, and live from that place within us that is real— and walk this precious time we have here on this earth without judgement of ourselves or others.
